About the Editor

Carlos da Silva Campos.

Professional journalist, with background on the economical press and Packaging Editor since 1982, heading independent magazines REVIPACK (packaging), REVIPLAST (plastics) and REVIPROJECT (automation).
Lawyer since 1984 and and Packaging Consultant since 1986, working for several industry associations related to packaging and recycling. Honorary Member of IPPO - the International Packaging Press Organisation. Served as Vice-President (1996-1999) and Chairman (1999-2002).

FEVE – the European Container Glass Federation has elected a new executive team for the 2017-2019 term of office. FEVE celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, representing today 60 corporate members belonging to approximately 20 independent corporate groups with 160 glass packaging manufacturing plants across 23 European countries. Johan Gorter, CEO of Ardagh, has been elected as President of FEVE, sided by Jean-Pierre Floris, Chairman and CEO of Verallia Group, as Vice-President.

Today, the container glass industry is a pioneer of the EU circular economy. In the last fifteen years, bottle-to-bottle glass recycling has increased by 139% throughout Europe. Some 1.5 million bottle banks are available across the region and an average of 74% of Europe’s glass is collected for recycling, marking the success of separate collection for glass introduced in Europe in the 1970s. The industry is also an important contributor to the European economy. Every year over €600 million are invested in energy efficiency, decarbonization and upgrades over the 160 manufacturing plants across Europe, contributing to maintain a total of 125,000 direct and indirect jobs. Investments in innovation help to modernise production processes and to produce glass bottles that are 30% lighter than 20 years ago, while still maintaining their product preservation qualities, recyclability, and innovative design.

The European Container Glass Federation (FEVE) carried out a new European glass packaging Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to benchmark industry performance against previous data published in 2009. Compared to the previous LCA study, data prove major progress has been made by the container glass industry in terms of recycled content, saving of virgin raw materials, energy consumption and emissions reduction. The study provides a very detailed and representative picture of the European industry average performance. It is not based on a cherry-picking of best-performing cases. It covers 84% or 17.5 Mtons of the Year 2012 European sold volume of packed container glass (72% in the previous study based on Year 2007 data) and 219 furnaces across Europe (205 in 2007). All glass production technologies and bottle colours have been assessed. The study was peer reviewed by a panel of LCA experts, including the chairman of the ISO TC207/SC5 Life Cycle Assessment. The full inventory of inputs and outputs for the production of an average glass bottle is available. LCA methodology helps to measure some key environmental indicators. The FEVE LCA for container glass (i.e. bottles and jars) analyses each step that goes from extraction of raw materials, to making, delivering, and disposing of the container glass. Overall, the FEVE LCA demonstrates how closed-loop recycling has a high positive impact on the sustainability of glass packaging. The LCA helps the glass industry to understand its current environmental footprint and this will act as a benchmark for future improvements.

The methodological report and Life Cycle Inventory are available for download on FEVE’s website under privileged access. To register for downloading, clich HERE.

The average glass recycling rate in the European Union have passed the 70% mark, reports FEVE, the European Federation of Glass Containers Manufacturers, based on 2012 estimates. Over 25 billion bottles and jars were collected throughout the European Union in 2012 to make new bottles. The savings in virgin resources could build two Egyptian pyramids.

Recycling means that less virgin materials are needed despite market growth. Between 1990 and 2012, EU consumption of products packed in glass increased by 39% in Europe. Glass recycling increased at the much quicker pace of 131%. As a result there is a big reduction of raw materials, CO2 and energy used to produce new bottles. Available industry data show a distinct decoupling of industry growth from resource demand and environmental impacts: 189 million tons of raw materials saved; and 138 million tons of waste have not gone to landfill thanks to recycling. More needs to be done to improve the quality of collected glass that can be effectively recycled in a circular economy, as well as to collect the remaining 30% of used glass that currently is wasted.